Abstract:The discussion on the circular economy (CE) has attracted a rising interest within global policy and business as a way of increasing the sustainability of production and consumption. Yet the literature mostly portrays a Global North perspective. There is a diverse spectrum of community-based organizations playing important roles in resource recovery and transformation, particularly, but not only, in Global South countries, providing innovative examples for grassroots involvement in waste management and in the CE. This article proposes to add a Southern lens, situated in the context of waste picker organizations, to the concept of CE. The discursive framework in this article couples ecological economy (EE) with social/solidarity economy (SSE), focusing not only on environmental sustainability but also on social, economic, political and cultural dimensions involved in production, consumption and discard. We acknowledge that grassroots movements contribute to policy making and improve urban waste management systems. The paper outlines two empirical studies (Argentina, Brazil) that illustrate how waste picker organizations perform selective waste collection services, engage with municipalities and industries, and practice the CE. The research reveals that social and political facets need to be added to the debate about the CE, linking environmental management and policy with community development and recognizing waste pickers as protagonists in the CE. Our findings emphasize a need for a change of persisting inequalities in public policy by recognizing the importance of popular waste management praxis and knowledge, ultimately redefining the CE.

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This article discusses the influence of environmental regulation on the adoption of new production techniques by a Brazilian petroleum refinery (Replan). Two kinds of techniques adopted in order to comply with environmental regulation are described: techniques to control local environmental impacts (water, air and soil contamination) and techniques to produce less-polluting diesel. The article uses secondary data and primary data collected in Replan and in the Petrobras R&D Center. The research covers the period between 1999 and 2003, when strict environmental regulation forced Brazilian refineries to update their production processes. Thus, the analysis of this article is focused on how Replan had reacted to the tightening of regulation. From the standpoint of evolutionary economics, the environmental regulation is considered a contextual determinant of the adoption of environmental technology. It is concluded that in the case of Replan, environmental regulation brought about the need of huge investments to adapt processes and products to new standards. The case also demonstrates the usefulness of environmental regulation as a policy tool for inducing highly polluting industries to adopt technologies that can mitigate environmental impacts and also promote technological learning in new environmental technologies.

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This paper explores the challenges and expresses some reflections on information and Knowledge/Wise (KW) societies and Socio-technical Systems (SS) based on an Organizational Ecosystems (ECOs) approach. It considers the SS constituting KW societies as a set of heterogeneous and interactive actors and presents considerations on the challenges faced by an organizational Ecosystem (ECO), challenges that require organizations actions towards treatment of organizations as living beings inserted in ECOs, aiming to leverage organizational synergism and collaborative efforts; information partnership and collaborative relationships between ECOs members; a more fairly shared leadership, empowering bottom up processes on organizational ECOs decision making. It is presented a brief case regarding Brazil's Public Research and Development arrangement "National Institute of Science and Technology in Micro and Nano-electonic Systems" (NAMITEC), relating this initiative advances and problems in terms of multi-organizational cooperation and transference of technological knowledge to the productive sector and to society.

Waste picker organisations (WPOs) around the globe collect, transport and process waste to earn their living but represent a widely excluded, marginalised and impoverished segment of society. WPOs are highly innovative, created by grassroots out of “nothing” to deliver economic, social and environmental sustainability. Still, we do not know how such innovations are developed, and how they are disseminated and adopted by other groups. This article examines characteristics, challenges and innovations of WPOs across five countries in Latin America and East Africa. It is based on quantitative and qualitative data regarding modes of organisation and management, gender, received support, business orientations, environmental and social contributions, and innovations developed in response to multiple challenges. The paper provides a comprehensive understanding of WPOs’ activities and their grassroots innovations in the Global South. The study shows how WPOs contribute significantly to the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the societies they serve as well as the wider urban societies. To start and maintain WPOs in informal settlements with a lack of infrastructure, institutional frameworks, and public and private investors is a difficult quest. WPOs take many different organisational forms depending on the complexity of local realities, ranging from advanced collective organization as cooperatives to small self-help groups and microentrepreneurs. Self-organisation into regional and national networks provides economic opportunities, autonomy and stability as well as political influence. Yet, institutional support is fundamental and the lack thereof threatens their existence. Sustaining WPOs as important providers of socio-environmental benefits through governmental and non-governmental actions is a worthwhile undertaking that builds sustainability.

This paper presents a profile of a Brazilian academic research group in areas related to the management of technology innovation. Keywords searches have been chosen to generate a database composed of information about research groups, projects that are funded by Brazilian Federal Government and scientific journals. Data analysis allowed the following conclusions: 1. Most research groups have been established in the 2000s, when innovation Policies have been settled in Brazil; 2. Most of the research is located in regions which have better science and technology infrastructure; 3. There is low interaction between researchers and public/private companies; 4. Federal Agencies tend to support projects related to innovation policy instruments (technology parks, local production systems, technology transfer centers in universities and research institutes).